Academic Support, Student Services
The ‘3-5’ rule: breaking down tasks into 3 to 5 stages
Without realising it, you may already have had used the 3-5 rule to help with breaking tasks
down into manageable chunks.
Revising for exams: revise 3-5 topics from the 10-12 covered in lectures
Lab reports:
 Introduction
 Materials and methods
 Observations and results
 Analysis
 Conclusions
Essays:
 Introduction
 1st theme/aspect of the topic
 2nd theme/aspect of the topic
 3rd theme/aspect of the topic
 Conclusion
to
For doing longer assessments, you may find that you are breaking the assessment into ‘essaysized’ chunks:
Dissertation/project:
 Introduction
 Chapter / Section 1 – then break these down again as per ‘essays’
 Chapter / Section 2 –
“
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 Chapter / Section 3 –
“
“
 Conclusion
For tips about breaking down essays, why not look at our ‘Planning your writing to manage
your reading’ handout from our ‘Hunter-gatherer pack’? (see end of this document)
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/studentservices/documents/hgplanning-your-writing-tomanage-your-reading.pdf
Examples of using the 3-5 rule
Reading and notetaking: from overview to detail

Identify 3-5 core sources potentially useful for your assessment – check reading lists
and class notes for ideas of possible resources

Think where and how your reading/notes will potentially help you for your assessment.
Think about SQ3R as a strategy: Survey, Question, Read, Recall, Review (see how the
3-5 rule works there? Five stages for reading).

Identify 3-5 key aspects of your text to get an overview of its content
o Summarise the core points of a text in 3-5 bullet points
o Do you need more detail? Why? Where would you use/refer to the detail?
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/StudentServices/StudyResources
Academic Support, Student Services
Revision tips: Build up your knowledge of the module in layers

Look at the lecture topics – are they all very distinct areas or do some lecture topics
overlap/interact? (Look to see if you can group these into 3-5 categories)

Start by identifying key pieces of information – for example
o 3-5 concepts
o 3-5 theories
o 3-5 names – authors, theorists, historians, artists
o 3-5 types of text / document / research study
o 3-5 periods of time or dates
o 3-5 formulae / processes
o 3-5 systems / models

Look at any past exam papers of sample questions – how would this initial layer of
information help you to put together an answer?
o You may then need 3-5 reasons or 3-5 more specific examples to illustrate the
points you want to include in your answers
o Think about how facts and ideas relate to each other
 Similar (and – more of the same or alike)
 Different (but – contrasting examples)
 Consequence (so – this happens because)
 Sequence (time or next in the process)
Presentations: 3 points is probably enough
If you are using PowerPoint, allow approximately/at least 2 minutes per slide
 10 minute presentation – 5 slides max e.g.
1. Introduction / overview
2. Point 1 – with 3 bullet points to expand the idea
3. Point 2 –
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4. Point 3 –
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5. Conclusion / summary

15 minute presentation – between 7 and 10 slides max e.g.
1. Introduction
2. Point 1 – with 3 bullet points to expand the idea
3. Point 2 –
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4. Point 3 –
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5. Point 4 –
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6. Point 5 –
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7. Conclusion / summary
Break it down! Tasks broken into 3-5 steps can be
more manageable
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/StudentServices/StudyResources
Academic Support Study Tip
Mind-map for planning the main sections of an essay proportionately: Using the 3-5 rule
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/StudentServices/StudyResources